A couple of RT questions

[wild bill]

We have some older fry rt that are about 4 inches now should we try and breed them to our rd female ur willthis lessen the quality of our rt. Our rt fry are only a first crossing texasxbp. Also some of the fry are getting yellow blotches but their pearling has disappeared will it return when they are done peeling? Does ph effect rt color or health because our tank is at a ph of 6?

 

[Chrisplosion]

We have some older fry rt that are about 4 inches now should we try and breed them to our rd female ur willthis lessen the quality of our rt. Our rt fry are only a first crossing texasxbp. Also some of the fry are getting yellow blotches but their pearling has disappeared will it return when they are done peeling? Does ph effect rt color or health because our tank is at a ph of 6?

Temperature, pH, water quality, health, tank background/substrate, and more importantly genetics affect color.

 

[wild bill]

As far as genetics I am not to sure but our bp is a real dark orange and the rd I want to use is a lot more orange than alot I have seen pictures of. Everthing else in our setup is good but the ph our water from the tap is 7.4 so we are confused how this tank got so low.

 

[RD.]

Are you on town water, or well water?

 

[wild bill]

Probably the same water as you as our water is from the RD river only difference would be the treating. My biggest concern with that is I heard fish show better color in the right ph water. Mostly wondering why the ones turning yellow are losing their pearling is that normal during a peel.

 

[RD.]

That's what I thought. Your kH may be slightly lower, try adding some crushed oyster shell to to your filters. The feed mill here in town sells it dirt cheap, approx $15 for a 25 lb bag which would treat all 50+ of your tanks for the next year or more. lol Just make sure to rinse it well once you get it into a media bag. Being farm folks you may already even have some on hand.

That should help keep your pH stable between water changes. The organics in your tank & filters are probably causing the pH shifts between water changes.

I doubt that this is affecting the color in your fish. As far as the fish turning yellow, and losing their pearling, most likely this is just genetics at play. Not all of the juvie RT's are going to come out looking the same.

 

[wild bill]

I will tell Irene about the oyster shell as we have a gew tanks we want to lowere the ph in. I know this rt project is one where you are in it for the long haul as only a small portion of fry will even be kind of red. I was just wondering why when their color changed the pearling left and will it come back. What about crossing fry with our rd good or bad idea?

 

[RD.]

Bill - oyster shell adds buffering to the water, and will help fix the pH at approx 8.0

Have you read this past discussion? It may help answer some of your questions.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132336

Personally I don't think that you will see any gains by introducing RD blood at this point. As far as your fry losing pearling, as I have explained there is no second guessing pearling, color, etc in these types of hybrids. What you need to do is grow out your juvies & see where they all go. The ones that don't make the grade will have to be culled. Lots of people are now breeding carpintis x BP & selling them as red texas, and/or "super" red texas, when IMO they are neither red, nor super.

If you want to produce high quality RT's on a regular basis it will take some serious selective breeding, some serious line breeding, and lots of time. This is exactly why the high quality "super" red tex's generally cost some serious $$$.

IMO you would be better off saving some of the best looking females, and crossing them with good quality pearly or good quality fader, (fertile)flowerhorn males.

Take a look at the male fader in the link below.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=348503

If he is fertile, imagine what the offspring from that fish, and your best looking female RT's would look like? Even a fader such as the one that I picked up in Calgary last week could produce some stunning offspring if crossed with a good quality female RT.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=389829

Far better $$$ in flowerhorns in these parts than there will be with RT's.
And if they turn out, even Dennis would be interested in buying in bulk.

 

[wild bill]

We are growing them out and have a few picked out that look like they will be redder than the rest. I understand that in hybrids it is hard to find fertile males. Dessis told Irene he did'nt want rt if they looked like fh's. If you cross rt fry with say your fader do they then become fh or remain a rt. The fader thing is confusing to me I was told that fading and peeling were the same. I thought our older juves would have peeled already but now looks like they maybe just starting the biggest ones about 4in. I am guessing they are about 6 or 7 months old can males and females be told apart at this stage. Thanks for all your help.

 

[RD.]

Well, Dennis does sell flowerhorns, but he has a bad taste in his mouth with RT's. The last RT's he got from overseas were hormoned, and when the juice wore off he was left with some rather sketchy looking fish, with black blotches all over them & which never did completely peel. Lots of money spent on crapola.

Peeling & fading are basically the same thing. Peeling simply refers to the black peeling away (fading) which results in the fishes true colors emerging. Once you cross a FH with anything, it becomes a FH. Fertile male FH's are rather easy to find, vs fertile male RT's, which are extremely difficult to find, and when you do they cost an arm & a leg.
Around these parts, you will never find a fertile male red texas.
Fertile females are easy to find in both.

In order to sex with 100% certainty you will need to vent the fish, something that I have personally never been great at doing.